The Best and Worst Designed Alien Species in Video Games

We often look to movies to tell us if aliens exist, what they might look like. We’ve seen visions of these creatures in movies ranging from Independence Day to Aliens to Close Encounters to Star Wars to Avatar, and they’ve each tried to portray a unique picture of what life on other planets may be like.

But they’re not the only medium to do so. Video games have done the same thing, and given players the opportunity to interact with and murder (mostly murder) other sentient species as well.

I’ve picked a few good examples, and a few not-so-good which embody the do’s and dont’s of creature design and backstory.

Good:

Turians (Mass Effect)

To me, the Turian is the pinnacle of cool alien design, be it in a video game or even a film or TV show. It’s menacing without being pure evil, strong without being a caricature.

Bioware has a lot of great creature designs in its Mass Effect series, but the Turians are by far my favorite, and I can’t wait to see what they look like in the eventual movie.

Protoss (Starcraft)

Perhaps I’m biased because I can’t play Zerg for shit, but this race of ancient supreme beings is unspeakably cool. Even their most basic unit, the zealot, looks like he should be the goddamn final boss of a different game, with heavy armor and psi blades which would indicate that to be the case.

The race as a whole has an awesome array of technology that has everything from War of the Worlds-like Colossi to giant Motherships and invisible assassins. Simply, they are the total package, and have been for over a decade.

Asari (Mass Effect)

I told you Bioware knows their alien design. The Asari are pehaps the counter to the gruff Turians, as all of them are feminine, though the race as a whole is more or less genderless. They can reproduce with each other, or with other species, which is one of the few races in the galaxy who can do so.

They’re vaguely sea creature-esque, with tendril heads and blue skin, but they’re attractive in a way that can make you uncomfortable. I know I fell hard for Liara in the first game. Err, I mean Commander Shepard fell hard for her…

Covenant (Halo)

Halo‘s Covenant Elites are beasty hunters that remind me a little bit of the aforementioned Protoss with their power armor and light blades. I will overlook their propensity for purple (seriously, what the hell is with all the purple?) and respect them as one of the cooler video game races.

Their armor gets progressively more awesome as they rank up, and their big daddy counterparts, Hunters, are among the most feared enemies in any video game.

Bad:

Locusts (Gears of War)

I don’t like the locusts simply because I think it’s a bit stupid to have a race of aliens that is literally the same exact build as your human protagonists, only with a scaly head and grey skin. The vast majority of the time, you might as well be fighting human soldiers, and it’s only when you get up close can you even tell the difference.

It just seems like there was a lack of effort here. There are a few Locust variants that are interesting, but then in the second game when they just made some of them glow and explode and called it a whole new species (“Lambent,” was it?), I was shaking my head.

Chimera (Resistance)

I’m not saying that they’re not fun to kill, but the Chimera seem to be to be an exercise in lazy creature design. They’re just a mess of eyes and teeth that are so giant and pointy it wouldn’t even be possible for them to ever close their mouths if they wanted to stop snarling for a minute.

Otherwise, they’re just gangly, and know how to shoot guns like all us puny humans. Yes, there are a zillion different variants of them, but they’re just too over the top to be taken seriously, especially with glowsticks on their backs that make them easily identifiable in any terrain.

Batarians (Mass Effect)

Yes, I just spent a few paragraphs praising Mass Effect‘s expertise in terms of crafting alien species, and there are any number I could have included aside from the two I did.

That however, is not the case with the Batarians. Like the Chimera, they suffer from having too many facial features, again with a plethora of eyes but also eight nostrils. EIGHT NOSTRILS! You could smell the burnt flesh of a Geth raided colony from the next planet over with that kind of sniffing power. But it’s just not worth being horrendously, terribly ugly at all times. No wonder they’re such dicks.

Covenant (Halo)

What? Yeah, I know, I had these in the good list, but that’s because there are so many different TYPES of Covenant in the Halo series that half are good, half are bad. While I might have appreciated Elites and Hunters, Grunts are probably the single stupidest thing in the entire Halo series.

The game wants to be taken seriously as a hardcore space opera, but then to interrupt a serious battle with a bunch of little walking triangular turtle midgets running around with their arms in the air, squealing like Steve Urkel, it kind of kills the mood. They are truly Halo‘s equivalent of Ewoks.

About The Author

Paul

I think I'm a part of the first generation of journalists to skip print media entirely, and I've learned a lot these last few years at Forbes. My work has appeared on TVOvermind, IGN, and most importantly, a segment on The Colbert Report at one point.

Dzuksi

I agree with you about Turians! They have incredibly badass design.
But i disagree with you on Asari part – they are uninspiring to me. They are very much humanoid with wierd skin hair/tentacle thing. They are ok, but just not great in design.

Drell on the other hand is much more interesting race, with it’s fish like characteristics and mimics.

Also i would like to add in good designs:

Strider (Half Life 2) – every time you see this thing, you shit brix (it’s not much about design as it is about presence)

Chimera and the Locusts are not aliens
the Chimera are mutated humans (from a virus)
and the Locusts came from underground and looks like (not confirmed) humans made them.

Lima Zulu

The Asari were a huge fuck up. A monosexual species has feminine gender roles? And human mammaries?

Levi

locusts came from underground on an alien world… making them aliens

Thinker47

@Lima Zulu

The asari apparently only appear human. They use their natural bionic powers to influence how others perceive.

OTWarrior

Asari I found boring, the Krogan are way better. The first time I had a conversation with one I was blown away by the detail.

As for the Halo Grunts, I love them. The whole point of the grunts was for them to be cannon fodder. Without them, the main enemies would have to jackals, who aren’t as fun to fight.

badaboom

meh, this is a list of cool/fancy vs ugly. all of them are more or less humanoid and therefore uninspired. how come that every alien is supposed to have arms,legs,eyes,nose,mouth and whatnot? i think mass effect only went somewhere with those jellyfish aliens or insect-antagonists.

MrZarq

Have you even played the Gears of War series? Firstly, it is almost certain they are not alien. Secondly, it is strongly implied in the second game (and will be confirmed or denied in September) that they are mutated humans. That kinda explains the humanoid features of the basic units.

Beorach

First of all, thanks for the site.

As for this post, I loved the Ewok blast but think you missed the worst alien in Mass Effect. What are those fat, emotional guys who like cigars called? The lazy animation that doesn’t even have the cigar inside an orifice that might be its mouth sticks out like a sore thumb in ME2. I can’t recall from my relatively limited time with the original ME.

Steve

I don’t give a crap if they’re aliens or not, the Locust are crap. The fact that you don’t even know what the hell they are doesn’t help any. Fact is they look just like the ‘roided-out, douchebag humans you play in the game, with different skins. LAZY.

Oh, and hey, EPIC, how about a color other than brown or gray?

Also, I second the hatred of Grunts. First time I ran into these little bastards I thought they were a joke. Maybe they are. But that’s not exactly the mood the game is going for…is it? Until Reach they just seemed like little children. And I was supposed to murder them as they cowered in fear. Fun.

Ocelotty

Is it me or are almost all Aliens bipedal humanoid variants. It is rare to see a truly “Alien” creature

al

i just want to state for the record about human like aliens is 1st we couldn’t make a true alien because we can only make characters based on what we know on earth, its impossible to make something we haven’t seen yet. secondly we couldn’t relate to a true alien. if it didn’t have human characteristics so the games like mass effect would end up being boring and unplayable. so please stop complaining about aliens being unrealistic when it would be unrealistic to make a game with a true alien.

Dustin

“Is it me or are almost all Aliens bipedal humanoid variants. It is rare to see a truly “Alien” creature”

Sometimes you see something more creative.

Though I’m not sure why that’s necessary. I think if we encounter aliens in the distant future we will be surprised by how much like us they are.

Concurrent evolution.

For example, in Australia, many species evolved very separate from the rest of the world. Species very similar to dogs, for example, but not actually dogs.

The reasons why we are how we are, such as a pairs being a tendency in genetics, or eyes in the location they are in, or the intelligent species being evolved from beings that were similar to what we evolved from… those reasons could exist on any life-rich planet.

I guess if it’s an ocean planet the beings will be dolphinlike or very unusual, but I’m not sure, as water changes the dynamic of evolving as a primitive tool making animal.

I think if there are sentient aliens out there, a startlingly high number of them look like us. And those that don’t are probably a form that is also frequently repeated.

“meh, this is a list of cool/fancy vs ugly. all of them are more or less humanoid and therefore uninspired.”

Second.

“its impossible to make something we haven’t seen yet.”

Wow, just wow. Thats such a utterly insane statement that goes against every human invention and leap of imagination ever done by humanity.

Its perfectly possible to imagine stuff we havnt yet seen. Hell, even the rather tame creations you can make in “Spore” have more originality then this lot. (and 99% of sci-fi).

Farscape did pretty close in some case’s, but even they were mostly humanoid.

That said you do need SOME human charactistics to emphasis true – but you sure as hell dont need bipeds.
(and if your making an enemy species, you dont even need any human componants at all – if your not supposed to understand their emotions, why would you need to copy humans?).

@Sillypants: They didn’t “lift it” as they gave full credit to Unreality (with link) in the beginning of the article/slideshow. Again we must suffer someone’s short attention span. Check yourself before you post.

SiD

“Covenant” is not a race, it is an alliance of many different alien races.

Overly-Angry Video Gamer

So you hate the Locust because you feel aliens shouldn’t be humanoid? And the Asari and Turians are okay, despite being entirely humanoid? Do you know what humanoid actually means?

What’s more, the Resistance aliens aren’t aliens, but mutated humans as a result of an alien virus. So their features are all fucked up because of that virus, and they obviously wouldn’t function as a peaceful creature.

And of course the Locust aren’t alien either, but rather a subterranean race of monsters who’re running from the Lambent, which are also Locust but mutated by Imulsion, GoW universe’s oil. And to thicken the plot, turns out Locust might’ve been a human creation. Seeing as the encounter with the Sire’s in GoW2, and further reading on the Gearspedia, tells me that the Sires are actually a precursor to the Locust, meaning it’s quite possible the Locust evolved from Sire’s run rampant.

In conclusion, you’re a shitty author, this is a shitty article, and I take vidya much too seriously.

you suck

Do you even know what the hell you’re talking about? I feel like the only real reason you have for disliking the locust in gears of war is because they don’t look the same as all of the ones you deem “good”. Seriously? And besides you said it yourself, they have some cool variations in gears 2 so wtf is the problem really? Also not to mention you probably should have waited to see gears 3 because im not sure I have ever met a human that looks like a stalk. If you can’t come up with a better excuse than “they are as buff as the humans” then you clearly don’t know how to rate how much thought a video game has behind it.

Im a chick, I don’t even play ANY of these games, I just enjoy watching my boyfriend play, AND I KNOW MORE THAN YOU. Maybe I should be given your job?

Heather

@you suck sweety being a girl has nothing to do with this article….and you make it sound like the norm is for a girl not to play games when a majority of gamers these days are female

@Beorach The elcor? yeah they were pretty crappy

Anyways loved the article! When I saw the link first thing I thought was: they’d better give a good rating to turians!!!! Agree with the Locusts. Gears was fun to play through but I felt I was fighting mutants instead of an invading alien force as I do when I play Halo.

Simple Logic

Grubs aren’t aliens, numb nuts, they’re a native subterranean species of their planet, which would explain genetic similarites (I.e. they look humanoid…DERP)

someone…

the locust are not aliens, just a subterainian species that live on that world. of course they are going to be human like, most species of animal are more closely related than you think…

Sigh

Try and think before you review. Its not all about what you think is “cool”or not. The locust are not aliens, they came from the same planet so of course they would be similar to the other dominant species. The entire POINT is that they are somewhat similar to humans in their genetic makeup. And the lambent are not alienseither. they are mutated Locust. Grunts from halo? The reasons you gave for hating them are the entire POINT of the grunts. They break up the tension, provided humour. Especially in Halo: cmbat evolved. I was disapointed when the games tried to push grunts into a more serious role

anonymoose

for starters the chimera and locust aren’t aliens. The chimera are mutated humans and the locust are although not explained properly in gears of war are some sort of species that are older than humans. the have lived on sera (the planet in gears of war) until they moved underground and evolved to live in darkness and dangerous conditions. finally grunts are meant to be like this they are trained to be used as cannon fodder to drain soldiers ammo to send the elites to take out the helpless soldiers remaining

not meaning to be a complete game nerd but i just got annoyed at people getting angry at a creature made that way for a reason

A Random

The locust are the same build as the humans in gears of war because upon the locust’s creation by Epic, they wanted to create humans that could match the locust’s strength and build (to create humans that seemed powerful as opposed to weak), and the lambent are a parasite that enters the victims body, but does not completely change its appearance, therefore they maintain the appearance of the host’s body.

The glowing that the lambent produce is due to the emmulsion within the body, and as it is a fuel source it is flammable, creating the explosions when they die.

When you think about it would you rather verse aliens that are stronger/waeker than humans, or of equal strength.

Will

This article is a fail. First you have to realize by playing gears of war that the locust isn’t even an alien race. They were a civilized race that was attacked the lambent parasite created by the immulsion which caused them to come out of their natural habitat to try and survive. Maybe if you didn’t judge games based on appearance and actually played the games (1 through 3) you would know this. Being from the same planet does not actually mean they couldn’t have a similar characteristics and builds. Also not all locust have the same build as the humans. There are wretches tickers maulers boomers grinders and butchers. The only character that actually looks like a human is the queen. That was never fully explained but all the other characters for the locust are a more muscular build than 90% of the their human counter parts. They didn’t have all the fancy machines humans did. Most of their work was manual labor. This means the muscular differences would actually probably be what humans would look like if we still today had to walk everywhere we went or had to carry every thing you wanted moved such as a giant piece of metal. The immulsion even spread to humans after a while. Hope this sheds some light on why you should actually play and do real research on games rather than assume something based on what you see.

AnAwesomeGuy

Alright lets start with the turians : yes they are an amazing design, though no one can deny that (like so many alien races before) the design was inspired by the old school protoss.
Protoss : they are awesome indeed, there psychic powers, telepathy and a lot of other mysterious stuff like no mouths (i have to say that the point of the zealot looking like a final boss fight, am i the only one who remembers the opening cinematic of starcraft 2 where a simple marine is putting on his armor)
Asari : Meh, there pretty much just well shaped girls in tight cloths, the only alien part is there blue skin and strange hair.
Covenants elites : I really enjoyed the design when i saw them, but once again there pretty much protoss zealots.
Locust : Even though there probably not aliens (don’t know didn’t play GoW3 yet) I find them very cool, why cant an alien race closely look like humans.
Chimera : This one i don’t know, i never played resistance but aren’t they humans mutated by an alien viruse or something?
Batarians : Even though these guys aren’t ”sexy” there still a very well thought design and very logical
Covenant Grunt : Even if they look silly and almost useless in battle you have to keep in mind that the convenants are composed of many races made into slavery. So the grunts are not a fighting race, and the elites mostly use them as canon fodder. So it is quite logical for these untrained diminutive little fellows to run around scared like shit.

Your an idiot who pick chimera, chimera’s wasnt an ailen species they were a virus that effected humans, fucking dumb ass.

Ken

In Gears of War, the Locust lived underground, different species of a race. Then the Lambents came into play in the second game. In the 3rd game, Lambency is a cause of the Imullsion parasite.

Shūyu “Meirin” Kōkin

I disagree at the bad ones but first the good ones

Turians: Are awesome
Protoss: Are also awesome
Elites: Are awesome

Bad

Grunts:I disagree they are good when it comes for a suicide attack
Chimera : I don’t know about those one that much but friend said its by a virus infection
Batarians: I’ll give you that one

Dumb

You prefer asari over locust(Even though Locust is not a alien race) What are you smoking?

Jackson Truax

Interesting article, would have been more interesting if the author had played anything else besides ME and HALO. Seriously, this needed much more diversity. Half-Life, DOOM, Prey, Aliens Vs. Predator games, and Borderlands to name just a few. Mass Effect is a great game, but highly overrated, IMO.

Chris

My god some people are stupid, including the maker of this list, if you actually look into things instead of just going off the little game knowledge you have, you would know that the Locust are a species of human, at the dawn of human time, when homo-sapiens first appeared so did locust, we stayed on the surface and adapted to life as it is, and just as white peoples skin became white due to the lack of sun intensity after we left Africa, the locust developed scales as there was no light underground and required tough skin for digging.
That’s why they look human, genetically we were supposed to have shared a very common ancestor with them.
And the Lambent is actually a new species as it is a living species which infects a body, it is simply a parasite. And they only glow as the emulsion glows, which is the source of the parasite.

monkeyFunx

You’re radio rental mate, how can you not like the Locust because they’re too humanoid but then like all of the above species from the ME games when they’re even more humanoid – knacker….

mephisto1138

None of the aliens on this list, good or bad are really all that inspiring. Mass Effect just looks like a cavalcade of extras from Star Trek and Star Wars. The Asari just look like short tentacled Twi’leks and the reptilian things just look like the Gorn or Trandoshans. Boring. Been there done that.

And why do all of these female aliens have boobs? How about these concept artists take into account some more animalistic reproductive/gender traits? Start integrating odd details re purposed from plant life or stranger deep sea sea life.

The Elites in Halo are just reverse ankle joint Predators with their quad mandible mouths.

It’s totally possible to design truly original life forms: study environments similar to where your creature originates, think about how it would have to move around, what it would eat, what would try to eat it and then take the best and most appropriate traits that come with actual creatures who have lived in similar environments and play it up. That’s ultimately why Grunts don’t make total sense, they need longer, shovel like claws and thinner quicker builds more consistent with things that burrow and climb rocky terrain.

In fact, about the only interesting and even remotely unique alien on your list IS the Halo Grunt. At least they’re not basic human proportions… albeit not a drastic departure by any stretch, but more so than anything else on either list.

Jack

Locusts are in fact not aliens as they are terrestrial to the planet Sera.

Just saying.

Plus the locusts have a lot of variants that kick ass, like brumaks reavers and zerkers.

Stefan Brown

ALL of the covenant are designed well, the grunts are one of the best, they are designed like that. And the locust? pfft they are one of the best aliens made for a game, there are many different types, like brumaks, corpsers, reavers, tickers, bloodmounts and then there is the lambent. So i totally disagree with that.

Cowlick

Because Tickers, Wretches, Corpsers, Hydra, Reavers, Brumaks, Seeders and Nemeses are all Humanoid.

And the Lambent are quite original, considering the way they mutate in the middle of a firefight and the forms they take.

mlaaaa(IDK)

if youre gonna complain about how the locust are too humanoid then you can suck my balls. they genetically modified some of their guys into things like brumaks and the reaver/reaper idk. and grunts can be good but you have to be on a high difficulty or with the skull thunderstorm on. then they have fuel rods and shit that blow your mind out your anus and back. so grunts can be strong. in numbers or with good guns. and for your info whoever didnt know why asari have boobs its because you bang them

mlaaaa(IDK)

one last thing in my opinion the lambent are gears’ take on the flood off halo

Not Convinced

Ok, I just finished gears of war 3 the other day and ive seen a lot of inaccuracies in both the article and the comments:
1.The Locust technically are aliens, because the game takes place on a planet called Sera, not earth, so the humans are the aliens really. I have nowhere heard of the locust being former humans.
2.the halo franchise is not really an all round serious game series, hence the many easter eggs character comments and of course the grunts, which there is some explanation behind their humorous features, such as them breathing methane causing their high voices.
For the author, i agree with you on the good ones, but not all of the bad ones. The most likely reason for the aliens being mostly humanoid is that most of those games have a hip new thing called MULTIPLAYER. They have to take into account the entertainment of the game, not the realism. It would be extremely unbalanced gameplay if the opposing sides had different body builds. This would cause weak points for each species thus causing unfair gameplay. And in GoW 3 some humans also turn lambent, so its not just locust. So there is absolutely nothing wrong with bipedal aliens. So in the immortal words of Augustus Cole “Cole train runs on whole grain baby!” my rant is done.

dj2801

u fail the locust aren’t alien, they are from earth just kept dormant for years under the surface so they are from earth so that’s why they look like humans. get your facts right 12 year old.

Antrxx

The locust look just like humans why? because they were humans. lambent are just infected locust and you know why they explode? because imulsion is EXPLOSIVE

Elle

locusts came from underground – on earth not an alien planet!! have you even played the games? they lived underground and had to flee from the imulsion. There is nothing alien about them. just backing up what everyone else is saying.

Th3 Grimmreaper

For those who don’t know, locust are not aliens (alien means not from that planet, in laymans terms) and nor are or were they ever human, genetically modified or otherwise, the reavers, nemacysts, corpsers are all native creatures which were ‘enslaved’ by the locust, sera is essentially earth and finally, the lambent have been in play since before Emergence Day, or if you prefer the first game, its Gears 1: the lambent wretches near the end… most of the other ‘aliens’ were good as well…

vittoria al draconis!!!

Batman

You do realize, the locust from gears of war are not an alien species? They are simply mutated Humans, the became mutant by eating a type of worm found under the surface of the planet Sera (planet on gow.) Thats why they are so human like. Also if you know a lot about Gears of War .. or read the Collectibles found in Gears of War 2, you know that the locust can communicate with worm-like species.. Hince the extremely sized worm in Gears of War 2. So in the end.. The locust are not alien. They are of human origin. That is also why the Locust Queen is human.. Read up on your facts before you start writing about something…

Batman

The Grunt troops such as Drones, Kantus’, Mualers. exc. are of human origin. The other things as reavers, brumaks, exc. were native to the underground, and were enslaved by the Mutant Humans (Grunt Troops). Their whole so called “alliance” is called the Locust.. its not their species name..

Th3 Grimmreaper

For those who don’t know, locust are NOT aliens (alien means not from that planet, in laymans terms) and NOR ARE OR WERE THEY EVER HUMAN, genetically modified or otherwise. The reason they worship (note, WORSHIP) worms never becomes apparent and they are called the locust because they are a plague on humanity. the reavers, nemacysts, corpsers are all native creatures to sera which were ‘enslaved’ by the locust, sera is essentially earth and finally, the lambent have been in play since before Emergence Day, or if you prefer the first game, its Gears 1: the lambent wretches near the end… most of the other ‘aliens’ were good as well… Finally, if queen Myrrah was human, please explain the huge damn tentacles sprouting from her back! I have read all of the books, played all 3 games and spoken to the producer of the game, so dont even try to suggest that i am making this up. ask and i shall prove.
Batman is an idiot.
DOVAHKIIN!!!

Josh Ferro

The locust come from inside the planet the gears live on they are not aliens.

Few comments. 1) you’ve picked mostly spiky headed aliens for your good list. 2) they’re all boring two burly aliens. Do SF games really have nothing more interesting to offer? Most of these are far too human.

elijah

What you need to remember is even though ewoks are cute and cuddley they were the ones who saved the rebels and helped defeat the empire.

Bloodshot

I think an often overlooked good alien design is the Skaarj from the first single player Unreal game, made by the same guys who made Gears of War.

They are large and muscular, semi-reptilian, extremely agile and have claws in their arms and can dive at you and dodge all of your shots. Add on top of that the fact that they are extremely intimidating design-wise.

I agree with some, and don’t agree with others. For example: I agree with the Turian rating. They’re somewhat human-like, but not enough for it to be annoying. Plus, I like the jaw thingies. I disagree, however, with your Grunt rating. They’re a comic-relief of the games (Obviously, the “Grunt Birthday Party” in Reach, and the “Not again!” in CE when you stick a plasma grenade to them). But what really pissed me off was the comments. I’m scrolling and all I see is:
Awesome post
Locust bitching
Locust bitching
Locust bitching
Mass Effect bitching
Awesome post
Grunt bitching
I think you should’ve included (Insert alien here)
Locust bitching
Locust bitching
Bitching about Locust bitching
Locust bitching
Locust bitching
Locust bitching
Locust bitching
Awesome post
I think you should’ve included (Insert alien here)

The list goes on…

Kathrine

Grunts are forced to fight and treated poorly by the Covenant, i believe they are from a completely different planet and have to wear the mask cause the breath in gas. They are sort of like slave fighters but they are pretty silly. Still all in all for a big video game space opera as you say they need to cover all types of characters right? so the Grunts are just one of the more less serious fighters but they in all reality aren’t real soldiers to begin with i mean you get them love health they are running around like a chicken with their head cut off.

Nick H

The purpose of grunts is comedic relief. Even if you read the books Grunts were literally killed in thousands by MARINES.

This isn’t really about what seems alien and what doesn’t.

It’s cool vs. ugly.

As far as I’m concerned out of the list of those picked grunts are the most alien. They’re everything humans are not. We can emphasize with turians they’re badasses who love big guns. Humans are basically the same.

Every other thing even has human features… The Grunts are the only ones that (While yes they have four limbs.) These limbs are different, a different body, and they breathe methane. They’re different and the most exotic of the bunch you’ve picked.

This was a pretty bad way to judge aliens.

If it were a cool vs. drool contest I’d agree though.

As far as the Locust go I agree they were a boring enemy I didn’t even bother to play all the GOW games because everything was on steroids. The only good part was having to take cover and almost think about your strategy.

The variety in the Chimera make them stand out a bit more and the Battarians show a bit of creativity… Absurd creativity, no creature on earth needs to smell 4 different scents. I could understand the eyes if they were placed around the skull like an insect’s. But for the moment they’re just silly additions to a game and made to be disliked. They’re the un-cool version of Turians. Truly if you got into ME thats what they are.

joe

Sorry to say but the locust are subterranian monsters, kinda lizard men or boogie men, not aliens. I’m not saying you don’t have your opinion just wanted to add my input. Thanks for reading.

Mattie

I really could care less about Mass effect and Gears.
BUT GRUNTS?!
They bring the comedy into the game that is needed. Without these little explosive bundles of joy the game wouldn’t be nearly as fun.
C:

petrino

i find any humanoid shaped alien idiotic and maketh no sense.
we evlolved from a specific kind of mammal primate, theres no chance the same fucking thing happaned at a random point in time on a random planet in a random part of our or any galaxy.

suspention of disbelief only comes with the asari cus theyre hot and exotic, and the turians look like baby birds crossed with raptors from jurrassic park.

Mr. Right

This is retarded. It only listed like 4 series, all overrated. The author of this article probably doesn’t play anything about games that aren’t popular hypeshit.

Poopfeast420

I guess you’ve never even heard of Warhammer 40k. You could fill this list full with the alien species in that mythos.

Necrons, Tyranids, Orks, Eldar, C’tan, Dark Eldar, Chaos and Daemons, Tau, even the humans of 40k are more alien than ones here.

Mass Effect and Halo aliens are decent but generic. They aren’t anything compared to the above.

Tyranids conquer entire galaxies and strip them clean of all bio matter, Necrons have arguably the most advanced technology of any sci-fi race ever, Orks reproduce at rates so fast that it’s pointless to wage direct war with them, Dark Eldar are so brutal and sadistic that their own worlds and cities are deadly to live in leaving it up to survival of the fittest of their own people. Even humans in this mythos are more interesting than the majority on this list. Only Protoss I would say are cool here but even they draw inspiration from W40k.

Whatever, each to their own I guess.

Mickey

You kinda lost me when you said the Asari were good alien design. Heck, they’re probably the worst alien design I’ve seen. They are most uninspired aliens in Mass Universe (really, aliens that look almost like blue women?). Not to mention that they’re really there for fanservice purposes.